Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Guide Version December 2006
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Contents Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Guide 1 Chapter 1: What s New in This Release Chapter 2: Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration About Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration 9 Legacy Encapsulation 9 Peer-to-Peer Integration 11 Other Integration Strategies 11 Components of Siebel Financial Services EAI 12 XML and Siebel Financial Services EAI 12 ACORD XML and Siebel Financial Services EAI 13 IFX XML and Siebel Financial Services EAI 14 Siebel Financial Services EAI Adapters and Connectors 14 Siebel Virtual Business Components 14 Details of Siebel Financial Services EAI 14 Configurable and Upgradeable Integration 15 Extensible 15 Declarative Integration 16 Data Transformation 17 Siebel Database as Master for CRM 17 Siebel Database as Integrator for Other Systems 17 Siebel Application as Front-End Integrator for Other Systems 18 Siebel Financial Services EAI Connectors 18 Siebel Connector for IFX XML 18 Siebel Connector for ACORD XML 18 Chapter 3: Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Layered Architecture 21 Integration Requirements and Siebel Financial Services EAI 22 Business Process Coordination Using Workflows 23 Transport Mechanisms 24 Industry XML Connector 24 3
Contents Industry XML Transaction Manager 25 Industry XML Data Transformation Engine 29 Industry XML Converter 30 Industry XML Dispatcher 33 Chapter 4: Overview 37 Design Decisions 38 Usage Models 41 Real Time 42 Batch 43 Access Mechanisms 43 Application Connectors 44 Chapter 5: Understanding Financial Services Integration Paradigms Financial Services EAI Business Scenarios Overview 45 Common Integration Scenarios 46 Outbound Message to a File 46 Round Trip Message from a File to Siebel and Back 46 Round Trip Message from an External Application 47 Round Trip Message to an External Application 47 Inbound Message from an External Application 47 Outbound Message to an External Application 47 Data Access and Replication 47 Accessing Customer History Information 48 Exporting Contact Information 49 Replicating a Company Catalog 49 Updating Siebel Using Java Beans 50 Data Sharing Across the Enterprise 50 B2B Integration 51 Legacy Data Integration 52 ERP Integration 52 Data Transformation 52 Appendix A: Predefined Financial Services EAI Business Services Predefined Financial Services EAI Business Services 55 4
Contents Appendix B: Industry XML Connector Factory APIs Industry XML Connector Factory Classes 57 Industry XML Connector Factory Classes Methods 57 Transaction Manager Factory Class Methods 58 Data Transformation Engine Factory Class Methods 58 Converter Factory Class Methods 59 Dispatcher Factory Class Methods 60 Industry XML Connector Factory Method Arguments 60 Siebel Connector for Credit Card Application XML 60 Index 5
Contents 6
1 What s New in This Release What s New in Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Guide, Version This guide has been updated to reflect product name changes. It was previously published as Siebel Financial Services ebusiness Application Integration Guide, Version 7.0. 7
What s New in This Release 8
2 Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration This chapter provides an overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration. About Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Oracle s Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration platform combines a set of tools, technologies, and prebuilt functional integration components to facilitate application integration. This set of products is referred to as Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). Siebel Financial Services EAI is an EAI solution built on top of Siebel EAI offered by Oracle. Siebel Financial Services EAI provides an integration solution using industry XML standards. These standards have been adopted by the industry and extended by middleware companies, as in IBM's MQSeries Financial Services Edition (MQSFSE). Siebel Financial Services EAI is designed as a set of interfaces which interact with each other and with other components within the Siebel application. These interfaces: Allow configurable messages within Oracle s Siebel Tools for exchanging information using the various industry XML standards. Expose internal Siebel Objects to external applications. Take advantage of prebuilt adapters and enterprise connectors, and are compatible with thirdparty adapters and connectors. Allow prebuilt XML connectors for Siebel applications. Allow for comprehensive data transformation. Allow extension for customized XML connectors by providing the Siebel Industry XML Connector Factory API. NOTE: For details on Siebel EAI, see Overview: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration. Legacy Encapsulation The Siebel Financial Services application can serve as either a front-end administration system or as a back-end CRM information storing system. In either case, it is necessary for the Siebel Financial Services application to integrate with one or more multi-channel back-end systems such as an Insurance Policy Administration System. To achieve this, the Siebel Financial Services application must be configured to subscribe, receive, and then filter out the necessary information to store in the database. The goal of integration is to make the communication possible between systems that have not been designed to communicate together. 9
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration About Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration In allowing communications between systems, many different approaches have been developed. Among these, messaging architecture is widely used and supported by the industry. For example, message oriented middleware, such as IBM's MQSFSE, provides cross-referencing functionality for all the applications. MQSFSE provides the connecting avenue between source or front-end systems with target or legacy systems. Many customers in the financial services business face the same business problem of how to connect new front-end applications for CRM or Enterprise applications with existing legacy applications that were designed for a different business model. Many of these problems are addressed by a relatively small number of key business processes that are implemented in most organizations. Companies such as IBM have encapsulated their experience and expertise in the Insurance Application Architecture (IAA) organization. In a similar effort, large insurance and banking organizations introduced ACORD (Association for Operations Research Development) and IFX (Interactive Financial Exchange) standards. These standards provide the definition of key data elements of insurance and financial services, business components, and the interfaces to these components using XML messages. With the Siebel Financial Services connectors provided, the Siebel Business Applications platform generates and processes the necessary request and response expected in an encapsulated environment for legacy integration to support both inbound and outbound real-time integration between Siebel applications and other applications. This encapsulation architecture provided in Siebel Financial Services encompasses the Siebel Call Center application as shown in Figure 1. Policy Administration Call Center Agent (connected) Customer/Partner (self service) Internet/ Intranet Siebel Applications Various Industry XML Connectors A d a p t o r s HTTP MQSeries MSMQ Others Third-party Middleware Billing System Credit Card Application Loan Application ATM Legacy Applications Others Account Manager (mobile) Figure 1. Legacy Encapsulation 10
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration About Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Peer-to-Peer Integration In peer-to-peer integration shown in Figure 2, multiple applications interact through a central software bus. Usually, applications use the messaging architecture and choose a specific standard. For example, the insurance industry may use the ACORD standard for the syntax and rules of the messages flowing in this information bus. Figure 2. Peer-to-Peer Integration Other Integration Strategies Other integration strategies are applicable as well. These include master data partitioning, data sharing, presentation layer integration (screen scrapping), and others, as explained below. Data Sharing. Data Sharing is another integration strategy practiced by the financial services industry. Using this strategy you can access external data in real-time without duplicating the data. This is a very common practice due to the nature of large amounts of transaction data for a business data flow. For example, you may need to review more than one year's bank transaction records for an account or more than 10 years of a policy subscriber's credit reports that are stored in a back-end applications database. Presentation Layer Integration. Siebel Financial Services EAI supports client-side integration in a Web client environment. Client-side integration consists of integrating applications at the user interface level, either by just posing the screens within a portal and coordinating the content, or by screen scrapping the content of one into the other. Data Mapping and Transformation. Data shared between applications might not be structured or encoded in the same way. To facilitate integration of nonidentical data structures, Siebel Financial Services EAI specifies mapping and transformation rules, including filtering and structural changes. Siebel Financial Services EAI provides a framework that is ready for transforming heterogeneous data structures. Heterogeneous XML Message Integration. Siebel Financial Services EAI supports heterogeneous object operations for the industry XML integration solution. Heterogeneous XML Messages enhance the turnaround time between messages and decrease the overhead between messages. Instead of using one message for each request, you can use a single heterogeneous message to handle requests. 11
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Components of Siebel Financial Services EAI Dispatching various XML standards. Using Siebel Financial Services EAI you can dispatch different XML standards to the target business process through the dispatching rule sets configuration and extension. Furthermore, it may also supply the necessary processing components to the target business process. Error Recovery. Messages sent to external applications may fail due to a variety of reasons. For example, the data sent may not be valid or sufficient. To achieve this requirement, Siebel Financial Services EAI specifies fault section elements and rollback rules to recover from the transactions executed. Components of Siebel Financial Services EAI Components of Siebel Financial Services EAI allows Siebel Financial Services EAI to support information exchange and communication between Siebel applications and other applications using XML technology while obeying industry XML requirements. Siebel Financial Services EAI provides an open toolkit and framework for customers to implement integration solutions with the availability of various components, such as Siebel Industry XML Connector Factory API, Siebel Connector for ACORD XML, and Siebel Connector for IFX XML that can be used individually or together with an EAI vendor's toolkit. The following section describes the components of Siebel Financial Services EAI. XML and Siebel Financial Services EAI Commercial transactions have always consisted of an exchange of goods and services, and an exchange of documents. EXtensible Markup Language (XML) allows us to implement the exchange of documents electronically. XML is essentially a platform-neutral data format that makes it possible to send messages across heterogeneous systems. Business messaging based on XML is one of the most effective ways to adapt existing application software to support external internet applications. Models are needed for integration because you must specify the structure and content of the message. Without a business content, XML is purely an empty shell. XML provides data interchange that includes industry-specific formatting, vendor-neutral data exchange, global data exchange, language-neutral, and others. Siebel Financial Services EAI developed an infrastructure that supports the development of industry XML connectors to send, parse, and receive XML that supports different industry standards. XML assists trade to happen between different people especially international trade because it provides common vocabularies. However, these standardized XML tags across industries are very different. Some industry groups are defining interfaces and services that could be used by industries. For example, insurance has ACORD and banking has IFX. 12
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Components of Siebel Financial Services EAI Siebel Financial Services EAI aimed to provide support for generic requirements across industry XML standards in order to support various Financial Services industry XML standard extensions. Siebel Financial Service EAI goal is to pinpoint the similarities among industry XML standards and thus develop and implement certain infrastructure that supports the development of industry XML connectors implement certain XML standards and messages. In the effort of providing this open infrastructure, several sets of connectors are built based on the standards emerging key roles in the financial services industry. In order to support various financial services industry standards, Siebel Financial Services EAI provides a generic connector called Industry XML Connector, which is the base connector for Siebel prebuilt connectors and Siebel Industry XML Connector Factory classes. NOTE: Other industry XML standards can be supported by using various prebuilt Siebel connectors or implementing Siebel Industry XML Connector Factory APIs. For details, see Appendix B, Industry XML Connector Factory APIs and individual prebuilt Siebel Connector guides. Generally the focus of companies integrating disparate applications are in two areas: Middleware. Some companies use middleware. You pass an XML document to the middleware and the middleware maps the data to its XML standard document structure. As a result, within an organization you can define the tags and the middleware maps between different organizations. Industry Standard. In the second area the tags and vocabularies are defined by organizations and companies according to industry standards. This method does not require mapping. Organizations that follow the industry standard framework can talk to each other. Also different applications within the enterprise adapting to these standards can integrate with each other. Siebel Financial Services provides support for this direction of creating tags and vocabularies defined by industry standard organizations. Industry groups provide document type definitions (DTDs) along with tags and vocabularies to standardize data exchange within specific industries. A DTD defines the legal building blocks of an XML document by defining the document structure with a list of legal elements. It provides ways to extend the message sets to cover different business scenarios. DTD describes the document structure and provides a list of elements for a document. Groups can agree to use a common DTD for interchanging data. An application can use a standard DTD to verify that the data it receives from the outside world is valid. DTD defines messages that encapsulate an industry specific data model in depth. It contains rich sets of data exchange syntax and rules. NOTE: None of the industry group standards have been adopted by a standards organization, such as ISO (International Standards Organization), or by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). They are all in various stages of development. ACORD XML and Siebel Financial Services EAI The ACORD XML for Property and Casualty (P&C) and Surety is an insurance industry definition of XML that contains appropriate messages for the property, casualty, and surety business sector in the insurance industry. The ACORD standard defines the required structure and format of an XML message to describe data elements and contents needed for the policy application, approval, and so on. The definition exists in the ACORD document type definition (DTD), which is incorporated by the Siebel connector to construct ACORD XML messages. 13
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Details of Siebel Financial Services EAI IFX XML and Siebel Financial Services EAI The IFX XML is the standard developed by the Interactive Financial exchange (IFX) Forum. This organization establishes and maintains a set of XML messages for the financial industry. The IFX XML Forum publishes a DTD that allows the Siebel Connector for IFX XML to create mappings between its data and data in external databases. Siebel Financial Services EAI Adapters and Connectors Siebel Financial Services EAI provides connectors to help create integrations between Siebel Financial Services applications and external applications. There are also additional connectors developed by Siebel Business Applications partners. Siebel Connectors Siebel Financial Services EAI connectors provide low-level connectivity to other back-office applications such as Customer Information Integration Solutions (CIIS), but also includes the business processes used for connecting to the external applications. Used in tandem, they allow for the exchange of policy, bank account, and similar information between Siebel applications and external applications. Third-Party Connectors Your organization may have a need to integrate multiple applications such as Siebel Financial Services applications, SAP, Oracle, and so on with one another. If so, you might need an EAI solution from one of the EAI vendors. These vendors work closely with Oracle to develop adapters to Siebel Financial Services applications using Siebel EAI. Oracle has a validation program to make sure that these adapters work according to Oracle standards. Siebel Virtual Business Components Virtual Business Components (VBC) are used to view data from an external system in Siebel applications. Using this mechanism, no replication within the Siebel database is required. Virtual Business Components are configured in Siebel Tools and use business services to access data from an external system. VBCs use standard transports like MQSeries, HTTP, and MSMQ, along with the XML Gateway Server, to query, insert, and update data. NOTE: For details, see Integration Platform Technologies: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration. Details of Siebel Financial Services EAI The following section describes details of Siebel Financial Service EAI regarding upgrade, configuration, and extensibility. 14
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Details of Siebel Financial Services EAI Configurable and Upgradeable Integration Siebel Financial Services EAI can be configured both as a server and as a client. As a client, use Siebel Financial Services EAI to send out requests. You initiate requests and ask an external application to provide service. Siebel Financial Services application used as a server publishes services available within Siebel applications to receive requests from external applications. When a request is received by a Web server or a Siebel Listener thread, or through a Siebel Object, it is processed and services are rendered. Siebel applications provide a comprehensive set of CRM services that can be configured as described below: Integration objects. Use the wizards in Siebel Tools to define integration objects. The integration object can be external, such as industry XML standard data hierarchy, or internal, such as Siebel business object hierarchy. Connector user properties. Connector user properties can modify default behavior, such as altering the envelope, header, or fault section of the message generated. Connector input arguments. Connector input arguments can take on heterogeneous messages that combine multiple integration objects that might be built from different business objects. Extensible Siebel Financial Services EAI can be extended using standard class derivation or API implementation. You can extend the generic industry XML connector by modifying its user properties and implementing the Siebel Industry XML Connector Factory APIs to support other industry XML standards. The Industry XML Connector provides the following services that are required in most industry XML standards. Envelope and Header section Fault or Error section Body with heterogeneous command or messages Data Type Formatting - Support for multiple formats. For example, Interactive Financial exchange (IFX) has Data type in DTD Data model mapping and transformation 15
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Details of Siebel Financial Services EAI Overwriting the methods available in the APIs to customize industry XML connector on the Siebel Business Application platform. Figure 3 illustrates the architecture of a customized industry XML connector. NOTE: For details on customization solution, see Appendix B, Industry XML Connector Factory APIs. Siebel User Interface Siebel Object Manager(s) Industry xxx XML Transaction Manager Industry xxx XML Data Transformation Engine Industry xxx XML Converter Industry xxx XML Dispatcher XML Hierarchy Converter MQ SERIES External Applications Database Server Internal Integration Object External Integration Object Business Integration Manager Figure 3. Customized Industry XML Connector Architecture Declarative Integration Siebel integration objects allow you to represent integration metadata for Siebel business objects, XML, SAP IDOCs, and SAP BAPIs as common structures that the EAI infrastructure can understand. Because these integration objects adhere to a set of structural conventions, they can be traversed and transformed programmatically, using Oracle s Siebel escript objects, methods, and functions, or transformed declaratively using Siebel Data Mapper. There are three types of integration object used within Siebel Financial Services EAI, Envelope Integration Object, Internal Integration Object, and External Integration Object. Envelope Integration Object. This object presents the hierarchy of the envelope and header section of any industry XML standards. Internal Integration Object. This object defines the Siebel data hierarchy for an external application. The internal integration object has the hierarchy of Siebel business object and business components as well as the fields. It maps to the objects in the Siebel Financial Services application and is created using Integration Object Builder in Siebel Tools. The internal integration object is required to facilitate the Industry XML Transaction Manager to package the gathered data. This service gathers the data needed for a particular message and packages it into the hierarchy defined in the internal integration object. External Integration Object. This object defines the XML hierarchy. The external integration object maps the internal integration object components and fields to external application aggregations and fields. The Data Transformation Engine and Converter use this object to construct the external format structures. 16
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Details of Siebel Financial Services EAI Data Transformation Siebel Financial Services EAI provides a declarative data mapper (Siebel Data Mapper) to transform the data expected by Siebel applications (internal integration object) to the data received from the external system (external integration object) and the other way around. A run-time engine, the Industry XML Data Transformation Engine, implements complex domain and structure mapping. XML documents can be mapped so that one document can be transformed into another XML document with programming. For example, data in one system's LastName field can be used in another system's field named Surname. Siebel Financial Services EAI also supports transformation of heterogeneous messages. NOTE: This type of exchange can take place within middleware, or between internal and external applications. Cross-Application Process IntegrationThe Siebel Financial Service platform supports workflow control in order to achieve process level integration between Siebel applications and external applications. You use the Siebel Workflow Designer to define the integration processes and Siebel Workflow Engine to execute and manage integration processes. The business services you use to build the workflow process can be a prebuilt component, such as a transport adapter and the Industry XML Dispatcher, or can be custom developed at design time or run time using one of the Siebel Scripting languages. Siebel Database as Master for CRM The Siebel Database is supported on multiple platforms, which allows organizations to adopt the Siebel schema as the master data schema for customers and customer relationship data. Alternatively, many financial services organizations have deployed a mainframe-based customer information file (CIF), which is used by many back-end systems. Siebel Financial Services EAI includes a number of technologies to allow using the CIF in place of, or in combination with, the equivalent structure in the Siebel system. Siebel Database as Integrator for Other Systems Siebel Financial services EAI can play a subscriber role in terms of other industry data not in the CRM model that is specific to a particular industry. For example, insurance industry customers may want to store very high-level policy information within Siebel Financial Services EAI. This allows them to associate customers with certain policies and to display data from a back-end system when needed in virtual business components. 17
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Siebel Financial Services EAI Connectors Siebel Application as Front-End Integrator for Other Systems You may want to query data from external systems. In this case, the search specification is captured by the Siebel Financial Services EAI infrastructure. It then sends the specification to the external system in real-time and displays the results received using Siebel connectors and virtual business components. Siebel Financial Services EAI Connectors Siebel Financial Services EAI provides connectors to help create integrations between Siebel Financial Services applications and external applications. Siebel Connector for IFX XML The Siebel Connector for IFX XML module extends from the Siebel Financial Services Industry XML Connector module. It is based on the IFX Forum standard for financial data exchange using XML. The Siebel Connector for IFX XML uses an IFX-compliant server, such as IBM WSBCC or another middleware application. Siebel Connector for IFX XML provides integration between the Siebel Financial Services application and external IFX-based applications. The IFX specification supports financial communications between banks, brokerage houses (future), service providers, financial advisors (future), small businesses, and consumers. The IFX specification allows financial institutions to support customers using a broad range of client devices, including, but not limited to: World Wide Web access using any standard Web Browser software Personal computers with Personal Financial Manager (PFM) software Voice Response Units (VRUs) that provide bank by phone services Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) Consumer handheld devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) Mobile telephones with data capabilities NOTE: For details, see Siebel Financial Services Connector for IFX XML Guide. Siebel Connector for ACORD XML The Siebel Connector for ACORD XML is an enhancement of the generic Siebel Financial Services Industry XML Connector. This connector allows Siebel applications to transfer data between Siebel applications and external ACORD-based applications. It uses XML to handle data formatting and conversion according to the ACORD forum standard. 18
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Siebel Financial Services EAI Connectors The Siebel Connector for ACORD XML provides integration between Siebel Business Applications and other insurance application systems, such as a policy administration system that implements the ACORD XML standard. The connector supports the ACORD XML Business Message Specification for P&C Insurance and Surety, an insurance industry standard XML specification. The Siebel Connector for ACORD XML receives, parses, and processes the business operations specified in the XML message for both outbound and inbound integrations. This integration solution offers powerful capabilities designed to meet all Property and Casualty message specification requirements. This solution also allows you to effectively harness the synergies between Siebel front office applications and ACORD-based applications. The Siebel Connector for ACORD XML allows Siebel applications to integrate with back office data and business processes for both synchronous and asynchronous transactions across applications. NOTE: For details, see Siebel Financial Services Connector for ACORD P&C and Surety Guide. 19
Overview of Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration Siebel Financial Services EAI Connectors 20
3 Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture This chapter describes Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration architecture. Layered Architecture The Siebel Financial Services Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is an extension of the standard Siebel EAI designed to address integration approaches adopted by the vertical industry. It provides a platform for the development of specific connectors for different industry XML standards. Figure 4 illustrates the high-level architecture of Siebel Financial Services EAI and various industry XML connectors. Figure 4. High-level architecture of Siebel Financial Services EAI 21
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Integration Requirements and Siebel Financial Services EAI Integration Requirements and Siebel Financial Services EAI Table 1 maps real-world data and application integration requirements with their corresponding Siebel Financial Services EAI features. Table 1. Integration Requirements and How They Relate to Siebel Financial Services EAI Features (1 of 2) Integration Requirements Metadata Definition XML Metadata External application metadata Siebel Financial Services EAI Features and Components Integration objects based on Siebel business objects Integration objects based on external metadata FINS ACORD Wizard FINS IFX Wizard FINS OFX Wizard Notes In any integration project, you need a way to supply data about data, called metadata. Siebel Financial Services applications provides XML as the common format for representing external application data. In addition, Siebel Financial Services applications provides an object type in Siebel Tools called the Integration Object, as well as an Integration Object Wizard, which automates the task of creating integration objects. Data Transformation Declarative data transformation mapping High-performance transformation engine Siebel Data Mapper Siebel Financial Services EAI allows you define what type of data is to be exchanged, and allows you to export a DTD for a Siebel integration object. Industry standardsbased Integration Mechanism Business Process Coordination Interactive Financial Exchange XML (IFX XML) as a format for data exchange ACORD XML as a format for data exchange Any other industry XML standards or industry XML alike standards Workflow Process Designer Workflow Process Manager See Siebel Financial Services Connector for IFX XML Guide, and Siebel Financial Services Connector for ACORD P&C and Surety Guide. Also see Appendix B, Industry XML Connector Factory APIs, and Industry XML Connector on page 24. See Business Process Coordination Using Workflows on page 23. 22
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Business Process Coordination Using Workflows Table 1. Integration Requirements and How They Relate to Siebel Financial Services EAI Features (2 of 2) Integration Requirements Transport Mechanisms (for interfacing with other technologies) High Volume Data Exchange Siebel Financial Services EAI Features and Components Transport Adapters: IBM MQ Series Microsoft MSMQ HTTP EIM (Enterprise Integration Manager) Notes See Transport Mechanisms on page 24. See Overview: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration. Business Process Coordination Using Workflows Connectors are composed of multiple components. These components are tied together using workflows. With different sets of configuration, you can alter generated messages and behavior. You can use the Workflow Process Designer and the Workflow Process Manager to configure your data integration business process flow. The Siebel Financial Services application provides sample workflows which you can use as a reference implementation for your data integration business processes. Figure 5 shows one of these sample workflows from the sample database. Events Siebel Workflow Engine Transports Adapters (HTTP, MSMQ, MQSeries, DLL) External Applications 11 12 1 10 2 9 3 8 4 7 6 5 UI Object Database Object Interfaces (COM, CORBA, Java) Siebel Objects Scripts Business Services Workflow Definition Figure 5. Siebel Workflow Architecture for Siebel Financial Services EAI 23
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Transport Mechanisms Transport Mechanisms Many companies have standardized transport solutions such as MQSeries from IBM or MSMQ from Microsoft. These transports allow the transportation of messages between one system and another. Oracle conforms to this standard by allowing you to plug Siebel Financial Services applications into these environments through Siebel Financial Services EAI s comprehensive set of adapters, that include the MQSeries adapter, the MSMQ adapter, and the HTTP adapter. Transport adapters developed by Oracle and Oracle-certified partners allow diverse applications to communicate with Siebel Financial Services applications across virtually any operating system, network, and database. Figure 6 on page 24 shows the various available transports to and from Siebel Financial Services applications as a new customer s information is processed. Any one or any combination of these transports could be used in an integration solution, depending upon existing applications and other factors. Industry XML Connector The Industry XML Connector is a configured set of components that allows Siebel applications to exchange data with external systems using XML messages. These components are called business services and can be extended to support multiple connectors. You can use the overwrite methods to extend the functionality of both industry XML connectors as well as Siebel Financial Service EAI infrastructure for enterprise data sharing and data synchronization for your integration implementation. By using the overwrite methods to extend the functionality, you obey the rules of data exchange set forth by the legacy or back-end systems, such as specific XML structure and envelope details, while using the common requirements for business processes and transactions. Figure 6 illustrates architecture of the Industry XML Connector. Siebel User Interface Siebel Object Manager(s) Industry XML Transaction Manager Industry XML Data Transformation Engine Industry XML Converter Industry XML Dispatcher XML Hierarchy Converter MQ SERIES External Applications Database Server Internal Integration Object External Integration Object Business Integration Manager Figure 6. High-level architecture of Industry XML Converter 24
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector The Industry XML connector has four key components: Industry XML Transaction Manager, Industry XML Data Transformation Engine, Industry XML Converter, and Industry XML Dispatcher. They are described in following sections. NOTE: For details on the IFX XML integration solution, see Siebel Financial Services Connector for IFX XML Guide, for details on the ACORD XML integration solution, see Siebel Financial Services Connector for ACORD P&C and Surety Guide, and for details on implementing other industry XML integration solutions see Appendix B, Industry XML Connector Factory APIs. Industry XML Transaction Manager The Industry XML Transaction Manager is responsible for interfacing with the Siebel database. It retrieves data and executes database operations for financial services industry integration architecture. The Industry XML Transaction Manager can also extract query specifications entered by users in the memory cache, and run them through the connector modules to send a query message to external systems. Furthermore, it can undo operations if it receives an error in the fault section of the response message indicating that the external systems failed to execute the specified operations. Table 2 lists all the user properties for Industry XML Transaction Manager. Table 2. Industry XML Transaction Manager User Properties Name Value Description DispatcherMapName IXMLDispMap Transaction Manager uses this map to tag the Body information for other components. This value can also be set as a runtime input argument. IgnoreSvcMethodArgs true or false This parameter allows runtime input arguments. SaveInFileForRollback <filename> The filename to save current record for future rollback when rollback operation is desired. SaveInMemForRollback <filename> The session key to set or look up the record cached in memory if rollback operation is desired. XXX (Operation) ServiceName/ MethodName/ Argument Type of operation to use. For example, Name = IXMLOperation_QUERY, Value= EAI Siebel Adapter/ Query/PrimaryRowId;!SiebelMessage. 25
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector The Industry XML Transaction Manager uses the prebuilt methods described in Table 3 to process inbound or outbound integration. Table 3. Industry XML Transaction Manager Methods Method Execute ExecuteOutbound ExecuteSave Default Display Name Execute Transaction Execute Outbound Execute and Save Description This method can be used for inbound or outbound purpose, as long as the integration object instance is provided. You should use the Execute Outbound method when Row Id is the only available input. This method can only be used for outbound purpose to execute operation specified in input arguments. See Table 6 on page 28. This method executes outbound operation specified in input arguments and also saves the transaction into memory or file. See Table 7 on page 28. The Industry XML Transaction Manager business service uses combinations of user property, method, and method arguments to achieve different tasks.table 4 lists all the method arguments available to use with The Industry XML Transaction Manager business service. Table 4. Industry XML Transaction Manager Method Arguments (1 of 2) Argument Default Value Description OnlyIOI false This is only used for Inbound integration. The inbound message may contain header, body, and envelope portion. When Transaction Manager takes the proper operation against the Siebel application, the integration object instances for response is generated as well. All information from the request message is dropped if this value is set to true. Therefore, the Industry XML Converter and Industry XML Data Transformation Engine do not need to deal with the overheads. If this is not set to true, then request information will still be carried over. XMLHierarchy N/A Property set in internal integration object hierarchy. IXMLMapPath N/A Store the key value for the dispatch map. Industry XML Transaction Manager will use it to look up the value, and attach necessary value into integration object instance. PrimaryRowId N/A The PrimaryRowId of the integration object. 26
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector Table 4. Industry XML Transaction Manager Method Arguments (2 of 2) Argument Default Value Description SiebelFINSOperationOut N/A The outbound operation Industry XML Transaction Manager takes through its user property. SearchSpec N/A The Search Specification for query. PlaceToSave mem PlaceToSave indicates whether the rollback instance is getting from file or mem. Valid values are file or mem. RollbackInError false Indicates whether the transaction should be rolled back. Valid values are true or false. 27
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector Although these arguments are available to use with the Industry XML Transaction Manager, not all can be used with each method. Table 5 through Table 7 list all the method arguments for each method. Table 5. Method Arguments for Execute Method Argument Display Name Data Type Type Optional OnlyIOI Only produce Integration Object Instance String Input Yes XMLHierarchy XML Property Set Hierarchy Input/Output No RollbackInError Is Rollback in Error String Input Yes Table 6. Method Arguments for ExecuteOutbound Method Argument Display Name Data Type Type Optional IXMLMapPath IXML Map Path String Input No PrimaryRowId Primary Row Id String Input Yes SiebelFINSOperationOut SearchSpec Outbound Operation Search Specification String Input No String Input Yes XMLHierarchy XML Property Set Hierarchy Input/Output No Table 7. Method Arguments for ExecuteSave Method Argument Display Name Data Type Type Optional IXMLMapPath IXML Map Path String Input No PrimaryRowId Primary Row Id String Input Yes SiebelFINSOperationOut Outbound Operation String Input No SearchSpec Search Specification String Input Yes XMLHierarchy XML Property Set Hierarchy Output No PlaceToSave Place To Save String Input Yes 28
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector Industry XML Data Transformation Engine The Industry XML Data Transformation Engine transforms the hierarchy between external and internal data models that are represented by integration object instances. The Industry XML Data Transformation Engine is designed to handle heterogeneous messages to allow more than one business object scenario. It also takes extra input arguments specified in the data transformation map to indicate the possibility of removing empty value tags from the instances transformed. Table 8 lists the specific methods for the industry XML Data Transformation Engine. Table 8. Industry XML Data Transformation Engine Methods Methods Display Name Description ToExternal ToInternal Transform To External Hierarchy Transform To Siebel Hierarchy Transforms Siebel internal integration object hierarchy into the industry XML external hierarchy. Transform industry XML external hierarchy into the Siebel internal integration object hierarchy. Industry XML Data Transformation Engine business service uses combinations of method, and method arguments to achieve different tasks.table 9 lists all the method arguments available to use with Industry XML Data Transformation Engine business service. Table 9. Industry XML Data Transformation Engine Method Arguments Argument Default Value Description XMLHierarchy N/A Property set in internal or external integration object hierarchy. <MapArgs> N/A See Business Processes and Rules: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration. 29
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector Each method defined for the Industry XML Data Transformation Engine business service takes some input arguments and produces some output arguments as listed in Table 10 and Table 11. Table 10. Method Arguments for ToExternal Method Name Display Name Data Type Type Optional XMLHierrarchy XML Property Set Hierarchy Input/Output No <MapArgs> String Input Yes Table 11. Method Arguments for ToInternal Method Name Display Name Data Type Type Optional XMLHierrarchy XML Property Set Hierarchy Input/Output No <MapArgs> String Input Yes Industry XML Converter The Industry XML Converter supports the generic syntax and rules requirements of the general industry XML standard. It converts the data from Siebel external integration object hierarchy to XML hierarchy that conforms to DTD specifications. For example, it generates certain authentication parameters for the XML message, and also generates and detects the fault sections in an XML message for extended converters to manipulate. Table 12 lists all the user properties for this converter. Table 12. Industry XML Converter User Properties Name Value Description EscapeNames true or false If set to true, the converter replaces illegal XML name characters with escape characters. Otherwise, it will ignore illegal XML name characters. The default value is true. HierarchyFormat XML Hierarchy Format of the property set input or output. Internal use only. XMLEnvIntObjectName <integration object name> Name of an integration object that defines the content and hierarchy for the envelope and header section of any industry XML standards. 30
Siebel Financial Services EAI Architecture Industry XML Connector This service provides several ready-to-use-methods as described in Table 13. Table 13. Industry XML Converter Methods Methods Display Name Description PropSetToXML PropSetToXML Converts an integration object hierarchy to XML string. PropSetToXMLPropSet PropSetToXMLPropSet Converts an integration object hierarchy to XML hierarchy. XMLToPropSet XMLToPropSet Converts an XML string to an integration object hierarchy. XMLPropSetToPropSet XMLPropSetToPropSet Converts an XML hierarchy to an integration object hierarchy. For each method defined the Industry XML Converter business service takes input arguments and produces output arguments. These arguments are described in Table 14. Table 14. Industry XML Converter Method Arguments Method Argument Default Description XML Document N/A XML document streams. Escape Names true Escape characters, invalid XML characters, to be removed or not. Ignore Character Set Conversion Errors false If some characters cannot be represented in the destination character set, for example, local codepage, the errors can be ignored. XML Character Encoding N/A XML character encoding to use in the output XML document. If encoding is blank or not supported, errors will be produced. XML Header Text N/A Text to preappend to the XML document. XML Hierarchy N/A Property Set in external integration object or XML hierarchy. External Entity Directory N/A Location of an external entity file, such as a DTD file. Validate External Entity false If true, the XML parser will validate the document according to the DTD specified in the <DocType> element. Truncate Field Values true truncate field values. Contains Inline Attachments true Indicates the message contains attachment documents. 31